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Thursday, June 28, 2012

Amaretti cookies

Grace's sweet life is a book full of delicious homemade Italian dessert recipes written by Canadian blogger Grace Massa Langlois. She writes regular posts on her site La Mia Vita Dolce My sweet life. Grace has an Italian background and has learned her cooking knowledge from her mom. With her children's support, she started sharing her love for food with the world.

All the basics are in the beginning of the book with tips and explanations. Grace has put in different types of variations that exist on the recipes. Some of the basics are pastry cream, chantilly cream, sweetened whipped cream, ricotta cream, Italian meringue, egg foam base for semifreddo and mousse, sweet pastry doughty, pie dough, croissants, hazelnut praline, puff pastry and choux pastry.

The book has delicious Italian cake and cheesecake recipes. Some cakes require the yeast for cake with vanilla (Lievito Vaniglinato) and liquor, so I couldn't try most of the cakes. I will be looking for the yeast soon :) I would have liked if there were suggestions of what ingredients we can be substitute to replace the liquor, as I don't use it.

The cute mini dessert section has six fabulous looking detailed recipes. I tried the soft amaretti cookies from the cookies and confections section. The recipe in the book makes six dozen cookies so I reduced the ingredients to make one third of the recipe.

Separate the eggs in to two bowls. Let the egg yolk and egg white come to room temperature, leave it covered with plastic wrap for 1/2 hour before whisking.

With a whisk beat egg yolks then add the sugar and whisk until the sugar is combined. Add the ground almond meal and whisk till combined, don't over mix.

With a clean whisk beat the egg whites to barely a soft peak, this is very important don't overbeat.

Fold one third of the egg whites into the almond mixture then fold the rest and combine don't over mix.

Cover and refrigerate the cookie dough for about 1 hour or overnight.

Bake in a preheated 325F oven on a baking mat. Roll the cookie dough into 1 tbsp balls. Roll the balls in icing sugar and place a sliver dragée if using in the center. Don't flatten the cookies. Bake 20 cookies per sheet for 25 to 30 minutes rotating the baking sheet halfway through. Place the baking mat on a wire rack and allow the cookies to cool for two minutes. Using a spatula transfer the cookies on to the wire rack to let it cool completely.

The pies and tart recipes in the book are presented beautifully. The pastries and fried desserts such as Sicilian cannoli, honey balls, profiteroles and many more are in a different section. The creams, custards, mousses and soufflés section is full of colourful desserts. Some desserts require gelatine. The recipes in the frozen and fruit desserts section will be enjoyed during this heat.

I am bookmarking the almond tarts recipe to make soon :) Grace's sweet life book is available for sale on Amazon, Chapters and other bookstores.